"What's not to like about alto saxophonist Sarah Manning's Harmonious Creature?...the quintet's take on Gillian Welch's "I Dream a Highway" is breathtaking. Beginning with just Hart's resounding low end and the leader's rich, emotional, sax the sad but hopeful ballad keeps you waiting for a beat that never comes." - Brad Farberman

Lucid Culture:

"Sarah Manning is to the alto sax what JD Allen is to the tenor: even in a world of rugged individualists, she stands out...Her bright, defenestrating, Jackie McLean-esque tone, angst-fueled crescendos and stunningly uneasy tunesmithing also set her a step ahead of the pack. Her previous 2010 Posi-Tone release, Dandelion Clock, was that year’s underrated gem. It may be early in the year, but her new album Harmonious Creature threatens to be the best of 2014."

eMusic Pick of the Week:

"Melodies with a back-porch languor that sometimes jump out of their chair and go off and running, harmonies that melt into the skin like rays of sun, and rhythms that develop an amicable chatter, never losing their conversational demeanor. Just a lovely album, rich with textures."

All About Jazz:

"Sarah Manning proves to be a harmonious creature herself, capable of balancing order and chaos, shadows and light, and the simple and complex without issue. In an age when many a critic has bemoaned the homogenization of saxophonists on the scene, Sarah Manning is proof that personality can still triumph over standardization; Manning stands apart from the sea of sound-alikes." - Dan Bilawsky

DownBeat Editor's Pick (Davis Inman):

"Alto saxophonist Sarah Manning asserts her individuality on this disc...For the interpretation of [Neil] Young’s “On The Beach‚” Kang creates squealing‚ bagpipe-like sounds‚ while Jennings bangs out a heavy beat. The group works itself into a fuzzed-out frenzy‚ taking the song to an apex that the overdrive-loving Young would probably dig."

On 2010's "Dandelion Clock":

Not only is Sarah Manning a fearless and intense player, she’s a fearless and intense composer...Restless, irrepressible, unafraid and unfailingly terse, much of what she does here is transcendent.

Third place in the 2010 JazzTimes Reader's Poll in the Category of Best New Artist!

Sarah Manning can swing as naturally as she breathes – an enlivening presence in the new generation of jazz makers

— - Nat Hentoff in the Liner Notes for House on Eddy Street

If there is to be jazz in our future, it’ll be because of musicians like saxophonist and composer Sarah Manning. Her music is unique, ultra-modern yet steeped in tradition, and it cooks. [She] plays the horn with conviction, fire, determination, and the kind of ‘knowing certainty’ that usually only comes to players in their middle and later years. She’s a player to listen to, starting right now.